Envy (Niall Horan) [BOOK 1]

ELI'S POV
It's been about a month since Niall came back. Sofy's sister, Ana left two weeks ago which means that Sofy is back in our room. I'm still ignoring her though. To be honest I'm not sure if I will ever forgive her. She keeps on apologizing everyday which started getting annoying the first time she did it. She eventually gave up and now there is always silence in our room. It's as if no ones there.
Ever since Niall and the boys have come here again, business has been booming. I guess since there famous, people wanted to stay in the same hotel hoping that they could run in to them or something. The hotel got so packed that they had to limit the amount of guests per room. It's crazy!
The bad part is that the boys have to leave early every morning before anyone would even wake up so they won't get mobbed. That still didn't and isn't stopping Niall and I from talking
Me and Niall's friendship has grown stronger if that's even possible. Tomorrow's my birthday and he says that he has a big surprise for me. I can't wait! He said that I'm going to meet "new faces". I'm kind of nervous about that since I'm kind of socially awkward. Hopefully my awkwardness won't ruin the surprise. I can't wait until tomorrow!
Next Day
NIALL'S POV
Today is Eli's birthday and I got the whole day planned out. Since it's saturday she doesn't have to work, so I sent some chefs to her room with a mini breakfast buffet of her favorite foods; chocolate chip pancakes, eggs, sausage, muffins, croassaints, fruit, and her other food addictions. After that, she is going to be pampered from head to toe with Sofy. Even though I'm not fond of Sofy, it was obvious that Sofy cared about her, so it would be nice for them to make up. When the pampering is done, then she gets to buy anything she desires from the mall. I sent Lou, our make-up artist, to accompany her to the mall so she can help her pick a dress for tonight.
Since Eli loves jazz music so much, I found a jazz club nearby that I'm going to take her to tonight. It's a private club that is so private, not even the paps are allowed to go inside. That's why I wanted Lou to help her pick a dress and after she's going to do Eli's hair and make-up. I can't wait to see the look on Eli's face when she finds out about the jazz club. Eli's love for jazz I feel is very personal and important to her. I remember her telling me the night she rescued me that her mom used to sing to her The Way You Look Tonight. I'm guessing her mum had a love for jazz music aswell and that's something they share. I wanted to fly her mum over here to surprise Eli, but she's obviously not here with Eli for a reason so I didn't want to intrude on anything. I wonder why Eli never mentions her mum. I've also lately been wondering why Eli works at a hotel at such a young age in the first place... I wish she will tell me , but she always changes the subject almost immediately whenever I mention it. I think Eli has a past that she's not ready to tell anyone not even me yet. I hope she does one day. I'm quite curious about it.
Any way, I have to go look for a suit for tonight. Harry and Louis are coming with me today to go look for one.
2 hours later
"What do you think about this one?" Louis asks me while pointing to a burgundy tie.
"Mmmm I feel a little iffy about that one." I retort.
"Iffy? What, do you think this tie is forming an evil plot against you or something?" Louis asks.
"No it just doesn't seem right." I comment while laughing.
Louis rolls his eyes and puts the tie back.
Right now Harry, Louis, and I are at a suit place, searching for a suit and tie for tonight.
"Where's Harry by the way?" I ask.
"I do-"
"Guys look! I'M TIE MAN! THE GREATEST TIE SUPER HERO IN THE WORLD!!!"
Louis and I turn around to face Harry who is wearing a tie tied around his forehead and ties wrapped around his arms and legs. Louis then ties the burgundy tie he was holding around his fore head.
"I'M TIE GUY! TIE MAN'S LOYAL SIDEKICK!"
I laugh uncontrollably as my stupid ass friends begin to pretend fly around the store.
"Guys we're going to get kicked out! Take those off." I comment.
They laugh and put the ties back.
Harry and Louis walk up to me.
"I'm hungry! Are you done yet?" Harrys asks in a whiney tone.
"Harry, Niall isn't going to leave until he finds the perfect outfit to impress his lady friend." Louis replies while wiggling his eyebrows up and down.
"Shut up Louis! I don't like her that way. I've already told you this a million times."
"So defensive!" Louis adds.
Harry and I both roll our eyes.
"Come on let's find a tie and suit before I eat my hand." Harry states.
"Fine." I say as we begin to continue to walk around the store.
I feel my phone suddenly vibrate in my pocket and quickly take it out.
It’s a text from Eli.
From: The El’s master!!!: Hey! Thanks for the breakfast c: Wish you were here. There are a ton of pancakes that want to be eaten by a blonde irish kid :p Come and join me!!!
I can’t help but smile. I wish I could be with her, but I have to look for clothes for myself and the day is about her not me.
To: The El’s master!!!: Heyyyyyy!!! Glad you liked it :D I wish I could be there, but I sadly can’t L I hope you enjoy your next surprise though. Try to be nice okay.
Her next surprise is her and Sofy’s bonding/ pampering time. I hope they make up. I think Eli does need Sofy as a friend.
I get another text from Eli or the El’s master as she put in my phone.
From: The El’s master!!!: Be nice? Why? What’s the next surprise Niall?!?
To: The El’s master!!!: Talk to you later
I put my phone back in my pocket and ignore the rest of Eli’s incoming texts. I don’t want to ruin her surprises. I continue looking with the lads for a suit and tie. I hope Eli doesn’t kill me.
Hours later
ELIS POV
Niall is probably the sweetest person ever. Besides the fact that I had to spend a few hours with Sofy, the day was amazing.
I was woken up to the smell of breakfast in my room, pampered…..with Sofy, and went to the mall!
Niall was right about the new faces thing. I met a woman named Lou who is there make- up artist. She’s really nice! I thought I was going to be awkward around her, but I quickly got comfortable with her. We went to the mall together and she told me that Niall told her that I can buy anything I want. I don’t like it when Niall spends money on me, so I bought nothing. The only thing I got was a dress and that was because Lou told me that I need one for another surprise. The dress is a medium red color. It’s a strapless dress with a sweetheart neck line, it hugs my body up to my belly button and then flows out and big at the bottom, sort of like a princess gown but not as big. It’s also long and the neckline is beaded with tiny silver jewels. I also got a pair of silver six inch heels.
I wonder where I’m going that I need such a fancy looking dress. I guess I’m going to find out soon… Right now I’m in Lou’s hotel room, and she’s been doing my hair and makeup for about two hours now.
“You almost done?” I ask.
“Yup almost love. I just have to add a little here and a little there.”
“That’s very helpful information. Not.”
She chuckles and rolls her eyes.
“You’re an impatient one aren’t you?” she comments.
“You’ve been doing my hair and makeup for a couple of hours now and you won’t let me see how I look. I think anyone would be impatient.”
“I’m almost done. When Niall sees you his jaw is going to drop to the ground.”
“Niall is going to be there?” I ask curiously.
She checks her watch.
“Yes. He’s actually heading there right now as we speak.”
“Wait why aren’t we going together?”
“Well, if you two go together, the paps will have the wrong idea about you two and you will be all over the news and many girl’s hit lists.”
“Oh..” I simply state.
I feel her apply lip stick on my lips.
“Okay we’re all done. What do you think?” She says as she twirls me around to face the mirror.
When I look in the mirror I see two women. One is of course Lou, but the other is someone I don’t recognize. The other girl has long dark brown hair in thick curls, bright red lips, and long black eyelashes.
I was frozen to the spot. Still in shock.
“Eli, are you alright?” Lou says in a concerned tone.
“I-is that me?” I ask.
Her concerned look turns into a soft smile.
“Why of course sweet heart. You look absolutely stunning.”
I smile a little myself. I then get up and hug her softly and slowly so I won’t smudge my make-up.
“Thank you so much.” I comment.
“You’re welcome.”
She then lets go of me.
“Now put on your shoes and let’s go. A certain pop star is waiting to say happy birthday to you.”
I smile and nod.
NIALLS POV
I’m inside the jazz club right now. It is pretty big. Actually it’s more than big, it’s huge! It looks like a ballroom! I didn’t think a jazz club would be this elegant looking... There is a gigantic crystal chandelier hanging on the ceiling in the middle of the room, the floor is a fancy white marble, and there is a stage for the band at the side of the room. There are tables with candles and flowers spread throughout the whole room and everything just looks so posh.
I can't help but smile a little. Eli's going to love this.
As I’m waiting for her to show up, I begin to tap my foot to the tune the band is playing.
My shoes are made of an italian black leather, whih Louis made me buy and my tuxedo is a simple black one with a bow tie, which was Harry's choice. That boy loves his bow ties.
As I chuckle to myself at the though of my crazy ass friends, I can't help but flinch as someone taps my shoulder. I hear a recognizable chuckle from behind me and the smile on my face grows bigger.
"Did i scare you?" Eli asks.
"Uh I-"
My words get stuck in my throat as my eyes widen tremendously. Eli looks…. Wow. I’ve never seen her like this. She usually wears her hair up and dresses so laid back, but right now, her hair is down and makes her look shall I even say… hot.
"Ugh Niall?"
I clear my throat and I shake the thoughts of my best friend out of my head.
“H-hi” I tell her.
Wow. Really! Why in the hell are you stuttering?
“Hey.” She replies.
“You look um-“
“Different?” She asks.
“I was going to say beautiful.”
She smiles and twirls around in her dress.
“Why thank you sir. You don’t look bad yourself” She states in a mocking british accent.
“Shall we?” I ask with my hand out to her.
She laughs and takes my hand.
We walk to one of the tables and I pull out her seat so she can sit down.
"Thank you."
"No problem." I respond.
She smiles a little and my stomach begins to feel weird.
"What?" I question.
Her eyes roam the room for a while before meeting mine again.
"This place is....it's magnificent." She states with her mouth dropped a little in awe. I can't help but chuckle a little. She looks so adorable. Wait...did I just think about how adorable she is?
"Are you okay?" She asks, her head tilted slightly to the side. Damn, she is adorable.
"I um-"
"Here are your menus sir and madam. What will you care to drink this evening?"
I mentally thank the waiter for saving me from embarrassing myself any further.
...
We eat dinner and enjoy each other’s company as well as the music. I’ve always enjoyed jazz music myself, but now I have a much more appreciation for it. The band is so amazing and into their performance. I glance at Eli who I can tell is thinking the same thing.
I begin to look around the club and notice how many couples are here enjoying the lively music themselves. Eli and I are probably the youngest people here, and I kind of find it quite amusing.
I see people one after another begin to walk to the dance floor and begin dancing. I don’t really know how to dance to jazz songs, but I guess I’m going to learn today…. Maybe not.
Right now the band is playing I got a woman and I’m guessing Eli doesn’t know how to dance to jazz either. We both are dancing like lunatics but we don’t care. We’re enjoying each other’s company and having many laughs. Even though we look ridiculous, we look ridiculous together.
We’ve been dancing like idiots for about six songs now. I’m having a great time! I think I might actually come here again. The band is about to finish Fly me to the Moon.
“I’m having a great time Ni. Thank you for everything today.” Eli says.
I grin.
“Me too and I’m glad you liked all your surprises.”
The song ended and now a new tune is beginning to ech through my ears. The song is slow as well as recognizable and I can tell that it's recognizable to Eli as well. I look around me to see couples getting closer and I begin to feel a little nervous as me and Eli's eyes meet. The band is playing The Way you look Tonight.
I anxiously wrap my arms around her waist and she wraps her arms around my kneck. I feel like a kid at his first school dance, slow dancing for the first time with the prettiest girl in the room. I mean Eli is the prettiest girl in the room...she always is, but this is not a school dance and I am not a kid.
The man in the band begins to sing.
“Some day, when I’m awfully low,
When the world is cold,
I will feel a glow just thinking of you
And the way you look tonight.”
As the song progresses, my nerves begin to ease and I soon pull Eli closer to me, until we are now chest to chest. My neck is on her shoulder, while hers is on mine and I feel my eyes close as I listen to the lyrics.
“With each word your tenderness grows,
Tearing my fear apart
And that laugh that wrinkles your nose…”
This song is the song she sings to me whenever I’m scared. This song is the song that she sang to me the day we started to really talk to each other...This song is 'our' song...
Memories are starting to flood into my mind. Memories of Eli and I, causing my eyelids to shut even tighter at the sudden intensity that is lirking in the room. An image of her smile appears, causing my stomach to twist. Her smile is worth more than a million diamonds and makes my knees go weak when I am the cause of it. And her laugh... it's loud like mine, but is actually adorable. Her laughter is as refreshing as a fresh breeze of air that comes out of no where on a blazing hot day. And it's not just physical qualities that makes her amazing, there's more. Much more.
Eli has never forgotten about me, and has put herself through so many things, just so we can remain friends. Whenever she says my name or calls me Ni, I can’t help but smile. Her sense of humor is exactly the same as mine, and she never fails to make me smile or even just happy... I especially love the way her tongue sticks out inbetween her teeth when she's either really happy, or trying to hold in her laughter.
She told me that she thinks this places is magnificent, when the thing that makes it truly magnificent is her being in here with me. She's utterly flawless and the fact of the matter is that I think I'm feeling something for her, and that i always have. Maybe Louis is right...Scratch that. Louis is right. I think I like Eli…. Like Eli as in more than a friend….
I’m cut out of my thoughts when I begin to hear crying. I pull Eli back and see how it's coming from her.
“Eli wh-“
“Niall I’m sorry I have to go.”
She then begins to run and I run right after her.
“Eli wait!” I yell.
I feel that everyone in the room is looking at us, but I don’t care.
“Eli please! Please!” I scream out of breath.
She actually stops and turns to me.
“Niall… The song. It reminded me of her I c-“
“Why don’t we go back to the hotel and you tell me there okay.”
She slowly nods and we get into the cars waiting outside for us not caring whether the paps see us or not.
At the hotel in the hotel room
We’re in my hotel room right now. All the boys went clubbing at some downtown club, so Eli and I won’t be interrupted.
We both sit at the edge of my bed and stare into each other’s eyes for a while.
“Niall… I think I’m ready to tell you.”
“You can tell me anything.”
She nods and takes a deep breath.
“Niall, my past isn’t something I like to talk about. It’s depressing and dark. I hope you don’t think any lower of me after I tell you this.”
“I will never.” I say
She gives me a slight smile and continues.
“My mom had me when she was sixteen. She thought my father was the one… He wasn’t. When he found out about me… he left…disappeared….vanished. My grandparents kicked my mother out. They said that she was an embarrassment to the family. My mom, while pregnant, got many jobs and rented an apartment. She would always tell me when I was little, that the thought of me would keep her going…would motivate her.”
She looks at me with her sparkling brown eyes and continues.
“When I was a little girl we used to pick sunflowers at a farm nearby. Sunflowers we’re always her favorite flower. She said they always reminded her of sunshine and that whenever the wind would blow, they would always look like they we’re waving hello. As the years go by, she got more and more jobs. She wanted to make sure she had enough money for my education and other necessities. Sometimes we didn’t have enough money for both rent and food, so she would give me all the food she could afford and starve.”
Eli’s eyes are beginning to tear up again. She takes another deep breath and continues.
“When I was in high school she began to have frequent headaches and migraines. She would even faint sometimes. I was scared, so I convinced her to go to the doctor…I will never forget the words she told me that day, when she got back. When I asked her what the doctor told her, she simply stated, it’s nothing… It wasn’t nothing. If only it was. She began to secretively leave the house every day at the same time. She told me it was because she got another job and she had to work more. I followed her one day Niall… She didn’t go to a new job. She went to the doctors…She had been getting checkups and tests done on her brain every day for two weeks. S-she got a brain tumor…”
I quickly grab her hand and I give it a squeeze. She stares at it and nods a little.
“The tumor was in the memory part of her brain. The doctor told me that she would have to live in the hospital for treatment. I had to live alone in the apartment. I didn’t have any friends at school. That wasn’t important to me. After school I would go to my jobs that I had to help my mom afford the costs of her medication and the apartment rent. I practically lived in the hospital with her… I went there every night… One day I went to her and she told me that she might forget things soon, but to remember that the sick person I’m seeing isn’t her… I wasn’t really sure what she meant by that until later. Day after day she bagan to forget more things. She forgot simple things like who the president was, what the name of her doctor was, our phone number, and the list goes on. The most heart breaking day of my life was when I visited her after my shift and she didn’t know who I was…The day after that… she.. she pa-passed away…”
Eli looks away and begins to cry uncontrollably. I pull her in a for a hug and I squeeze her tight. She desperately clings herself to me, wetting my shirt. After a few minutes she lets go and continues. She is really strong and I'm proud of her.
“I was sixteen at the time. I ran home not caring if I got ran over or not. I knew that child services would get me soon, so I didn’t have any time to waste. I ran to our apartment room and ran to the bathroom.
I opened the medicine cabinet and stared at all the bottles of pills…I wanted to kill myself… I had nothing else to live for..”
I felt my heart stop and try to control myself from crying. She tried to kill herself…
She continues.
“When I was about to swallow a whole bottle of pills, there was a knock at the door. I hesitated to open it, thinking it might be child services, but my gut told me to.
When I opened it there was a man holding a bouquet of sunflowers with a note. I ignored the man completely and read the note. The note said I will always love you. Never forget that.
It ended up being that the delivery guy delivered it to the wrong room… Niall.. Even though it wasn’t meant for me… I felt as if my mom sent me those somehow…I then grab my clothes and money and put it in a bag. I run and run and run. I hide. I didn’t want child services to take me. I didn’t want to have to call someone else my mom… I ended up running out of money, and no one would hire a sixteen year old, high school dropout, so I did what I had to do to survive. I stole. I stole from bakery’s and gas stations mostly. I just needed food. I didn’t care about money. I then stepped on a newspaper in the street and picked it up. The paper was for job openings. Right when I read it, I felt a gust of wind that was so refreshing. It was strange but pleasant. I’m a great believer in signs. I think my mom wanted me to read that newspaper….Any way, I read that a new hotel was opening up and they were desperate for employees. The problem was that the hotel was in another state…”
“What did you do?” I ask.
“I snuck on a train that was delivering pigs. I know it sounds repulsing, but I couldn’t afford a plane ticket or any other transportation. I had to do it…. When I got there I found the hotel. I lied about my age. I said I was 18. I guess they were really desperate because they didn’t even ask me for a birth certificate or anything. The hotel ended up becoming a five star hotel and when they found out about my real age, they kept me. I’ve been working here ever since…”
She finally looks at me with sadness and worry in her eyes.
“I’m sorry I left the jazz club Ni, it’s just that the song really reminded me of her and today is my third birthday without her.”
“It’s not your fault. You are a strong person for even telling me this. I bet she is here right now, with you.”
She gives me a soft smile.
“Niall?”
“Yes?”
“You’re my sunflower.... You save me every day....”
I feel my heart flutter at her words. I quickly pull her in for another hug and I shut my eyes closed, savoring the moment.
“Niall thank you so much for sticking with me.”
“I will always be here for you.” I add.
There’s silence for a moment, but it wasn’t an awkward silence… It was a peaceful silence.
“Please don’t leave.” She practically whispers.
“Never.”
How can I ever leave her when I’m in love with her…

Notes